Glossary / Notes

Reading 38: On the tonsure

At any given time, tonsure falls every fifteen days, or
sooner, following an order of the prior.
If in the two or three days after tonsure, or before it,
there follows some solemn feast, tonsure may be
suspended until the vigils of the feast or it may be done earlier. All ought to shave together their
beard and crown at the same time. Now after chapter, if from that hour on all may shave, the infirmarer should prepare the
razor, and hot water and
basins
and towels in a proper and secluded place, where the brothers are to be shaved.
Then the brothers shall come from the convent in accordance with the availability of the razor. The juniors are to be shaved first in order (according to seniority),
and so [it is to be done] from then on according to order unless the brothers are detained by some
business. The crown shall be formed ample and round on top [of the head]. The hair shall be cut in
circular form around the [lower] tip of the ears with the forehead clear and the neck covered, and
when they have been shaved, they shall go back and others shall go in turn, until all are done
properly and according to the standard until all the brothers are ready in a decent and regular
manner. This care shall be exclusively assigned to the prior, so that both the hair is cut and the crown is regularly
formed at his discretion. The Infirmarer then shall give out scissors for
cutting the nails. In waiting, going, returning and shaving they shall carry themselves discreetly and
in orderly fashion. If one of the brothers needs to wash his head, it is the task of the almoner to provide for this;
these shall, however, wash together and in a decent place.